The Protea who was fun to rattle: Gilly

Sledging in cricket comes in many shapes and forms.

It can be as blunt as commenting on a player's weight or pronounced physical features.

It can cerebral by reminding a player about the current state of the game, the pressure of the situation, a form slump or an unenviable record.

Or it can be downright annoying, like getting in the way of a player's habits, slowing or hurrying them up just to get them out of their comfort zone.

It's the latter category where Adam Gilchrist's sledging of the super-superstitious South African Neil McKenzie falls into; perhaps a combination of mild pestering and mental disintegration.

"I don't know if he was the easiest player to rattle but I think Neil McKenzie from South Africa was one," Gilchrist told The Unplayable Podcast.

"We all knew that he had a whole lot of superstitions and routines that he had to go through.

"I was told quite early that he hated stepping on the crease lines or any lines, where you mark centre, he just had this phobia of lines.

"So I just often spent a lot of time scratching lines in the crease line and in and around where he had to stand.

"That was always a bit of fun just to try and see how that affected him, but he was a good player."

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Avoiding treading on lines wasn't McKenzie's only phobia during his 20-year first-class career.

His teammates once taped his bat to the ceiling of the dressing room as a prank. The following day, with his bat safely rescued, McKenzie made a century. He taped it to the ceiling himself ahead of his next match.

When he walked out to bat, every toilet seat in the dressing room bathroom had to be down. No exceptions.

And it's said before he faced each delivery, the right-hander would look at square-leg, then fine-leg, and then the bowler.

McKenzie isn't the first cricketer to have a superstition – Steve Waugh's red handkerchief and Steve Smith's seemingly uncontrollable fidgeting spring to mind – but it got to the point where he was showing Obsessive Compulsive Disorder-like symptoms.

Fortunately, family life and retirement have meant toilet seat orientation is no longer a priority.

"It was a disease," McKenzie told The Times in 2008. "It was not just cricket, it was life in general.

"You've got numbers that you like, things that you like … it's a ritual, trying to control what you can't control.

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"I've never had superstitions about ladders or black cats. It was OCD. I've cut it out now.

"I've got a wife and child now and don't have much time to worry about toilet seats and taping bats to the ceiling.

"I think there are quite a few sportsmen out there who've got their rituals.

"I see (former Sri Lanka captain) Sanath Jayasuriya hitting his pads before every ball and I know exactly what he's up to.

"I know Rafael Nadal has got certain things he does. Habits and rituals can make you more consistent but OCD is something else."